MUSIC ON RADIO AND TELEVISION
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The oldest of all contemporary music festivals:
the Donaueschingen Festival
|| Helmut Scherer and Beate Schneider
MUSIC ON RADIO AND TELEVISION
In the beginning was music: music presided over the very birth of German
broadcasting on 29 October 1923, when the first truly general free-to-air radio trans-
mission was broadcast from Vox House in Berlin. Twelve pieces of music were
playedfrom 8 to 9 pm, beginning with a cello solo by Fritz Kreisler and ending with
the national anthem, performed by a military band from the German Reichswehr.
Broadcasting – meaning both radio and television – and music have been
closely related from the very outset. In particular, music is the mainstay of radio
programming, where a central focus falls not only on music itself but on reports
about music and musical events. This is one reason why most people obtain the
bulk of their music consumption from radio. Music is, by the nature of things, far
less important on television. But here, too, quite apart from broadcasts of con-
certs, operas, portraits of musicians and special features, music has a wide array of
219
functions, ranging from background accompaniment to signature tunes. In short,
broadcasting, and especially radio, is a premier medium for the communication of
music in German society.
Besides their own programmes, Germany’s public broadcasting corporations also
serve as major vehicles and promoters of culture. They maintain their own musical
ensembles, organise their own concert series and act as patrons on a broad scale.
UNDERLYING LEGAL FRAMEWORK
The most important legal foundation for Germany’s broadcast services is its
constitution, the Grundgesetz (‘Basic Law’). Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court
has repeatedly emphasised the public mission of broadcasting and stressed that
part of this mission is a ‘responsibility toward culture’.1 This responsibility is borne
not only by Germany’s public broadcasting corporations but by private commercial
broadcasters as well, with the public networks functioning to a certain extent as role
models.
The legislative authority for culture, and thus for broadcasting, resides with
Germany’s federal states. A second important legal foundation for the shape of
Radio Fritz,
broadcast by rbb
220
Music on Radio and Television |
Germany’s broadcast landscape is thus the Interstate Treaty on Broadcasting and
the Telecommunications Media, or Rundfunkstaatsvertrag. Its preamble refers
specifically to the cultural mission of broadcasting: ‘As a result of the expansion
of broadcasting programmes in Europe owing to new technologies, the diver
sity of information and the cultural offerings in the German-speaking countries
are to be strengthened’.2 Here, too, a distinction is made between the demands
placed on public broadcasting corporations and private broadcasters. The former
are explicitly assigned the task of ‘meeting the cultural needs of society’.3 In the
case of private broadcasters, programmes transmitted nationwide are obligated to
contribute ‘to cultural diversity in the German-speaking and European area’.4 The
special mission imposed on Germany’s public broadcasting corporations justifies
the fact that they also create their own cultural events and maintain their own
musical ensembles for this purpose.
With the Interstate Treaty on Broadcasting, Germany’s federal states created
a uniform framework which has been augmented by regulations specific to the
state concerned. Among these are the states’ own public broadcasting laws and
their own media laws for private broadcasters. As a rule, these laws are seldom
used to narrow down the stipulations set down by the Federal Constitutional
Court or the Interstate Treaty on Broadcasting with regard to culture. However,
several media laws at the state level impose stipulations on particular forms of
music in private radio, so that the granting of permission to broadcast is frequent-
ly connected with the allocation of a music format by the state’s media authorities.
BROADCASTING LANDSCAPE
In the post-war years Germany’s broadcasting landscape was shaped by
the media policies of the victorious Allied forces. Owing to its misuse as a pro-
paganda tool by the National Socialists, broadcasting bore a particular stigma. It
was at this time that the Western Allies developed the model of a decentralised,
publicly-f unded broadcasting network for Germany. This system has retained
its basic features to the present day and was adopted in the newly formed east
ern states following German reunification. The Federal Constitutional Court, in
its First Television Decision on 22 February 1961, reaffirmed the basic principles:
broadcasting authority resides with the federal states; broadcasting services are a
221
public mission; they must be free of government interference and independent of
particular interest groups; and broadcast services may also be operated by private
commercial entities. The special technological and economic circumstances of the
time justified the monopoly status of Germany’s public broadcasting corporations.
In a later decision the Court emphasised both the admissibility of private broad
casters and the special role of public broadcasting. In 1984 the so-called ‘cable pilot
projects’ laid the cornerstone for Germany’s dual broadcasting system, which is
distinguished by its combination of publicly-funded and private broadcasters.
Public Broadcasting Corporations
Public-service radio and television programmes in Germany are presented by
nine regional broadcasting corporations. In television these include a nationwide
broadcasting network known as ‘Das Erste’ (First Programme) plus three digital
channels, all of which operate jointly within the framework of the ‘Consortium of
public-law broadcasting corporations of the Federal Republic of Germany’, or ARD
(Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bun-
desrepublik Deutschland). There are also seven ‘Third Programmes’ with largely
regional offerings broadcast throughout the federal state concerned, either sepa-
rately or in conjunction with other regional broadcasting companies. Another na-
tionwide broadcaster, likewise with three digital channels, is ‘Das Zweite’ (Second
Programme), which is short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF). Public-service
television is also responsible for the niche channels KI.KA (children’s programmes),
Phoenix (news and documentaries) and BR alpha. International cooperative pro-
grammes, such as the Franco-German cultural channel Arte and the joint German,
Austrian and Swiss project 3sat, enjoy special status.
All in all, Germany’s nine regional broadcasting corporations operate 58 ana
logue radio programmes (see Figure 10.1). Though usually broadcast via VHF
(Very High Frequency) in the participating federal states, they are also available
nationwide by cable or satellite. Several programmes are transmitted via DAB
(Digital Audio Broadcasting), and almost all are available in the Internet via live
streaming.
222
Music on Radio and Television |
Figure 10.1
>> Number of radio programmes operated by regional broadcasters (incl. Deutschlandradio), by
mode of reception, 2010
Broadcaster Mode of reception
Radio programmes with Radio programmes with
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) 6 4
Hessischer Rundfunk (HR) 6 3
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR)2 7 14
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR)2 8 15
Radio Bremen (RB) 3 5
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB)2 6 0
Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) 5 7
Südwestrundfunk (SWR)2,3 8 10
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)4 9 15
Total ARD 58 73
Deutschlandradio (DLR) 2 1
Total 60 74
1 Many programmes with analogue reception can also be heard with digital reception (DAB, DVB-S, DVB-C or Internet).
2 Institution serving two or more federal states, each with its own state-specific programmes.
3 The regionally divided broadcasting of SWR2 via ADR is not included as a separate programme.
4 The regional division of the WDR2 programme in the Internet is not regarded as a separate programme.
Source: Compiled by Helmut Scherer and Beate Schneider from information supplied by Consortium of public-law
broadcasting corporations of the Federal Republic of Germany [Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rund-
funkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or ARD]
(http://www.ard.de/radio/alle-wellen/-/id=135130/cf=42/wkmjpm/index.html) and the online offerings of the broadca-
sting corporations.
For public radio, a model has been established in which the regional broad
casting authorities operate on several different wave lengths, each of which ad
dresses a specific target group and helps to fulfil the programming mission in a
different way. A good illustration of this is Bavarian Radio (Bayerischer Rundfunk,
or BR):
• ‚Bayern 1‘ is an entertaining service and information-oriented programme
with an emphasis on regional newscasting and a nearly 70-percent focus on
music, mostly consisting of oldies.
223
• ‚Bayern 2‘ sees itself as a cultural and information programme with a broad
editorial range of topics from politics, culture and science. Roughly 55 percent
of its air time is taken up with talk programmes.
• ‚Bayern 3‘, BR‘s second mass-audience programme, is a typical background pro-
gramme with a heavy focus on services and a large proportion of music. Unlike
Bayern 1, it is aimed at a younger target group and presents mainly pop and
rock music.
• ‚BR-Klassik‘ has roughly 80 percent music in its air time, which consists mostly
of classical music, but also has small admixtures of jazz and world music aug-
mented by magazine broadcasts, features and special formats for children and
young people.
• ‚B5 aktuell‘ is devoted entirely to information. It broadcasts news at 15-minute
intervals, interspersed with in-depth reports.
• ‚Bayern plus‘ is a digital and medium wave programme offering mainly Ger-
man hits of the last 50 years and traditional Bavarian folk music as well as
information and services.
• ‚on3-Radio‘ is conceived as a radio project for young people. It is transmitted
primarily via the Internet, but is also receivable via DAB, cable and satellite.
It explicitly invites young people to take an active part in creating its pro-
grammes and promotes local and regional music.
In other words, each station has a specific task. Bayern 1 and Bayern 3 ensure
a broad reach and high audience acceptance among relatively young or relatively
old listeners. Bayern 2 and BR-Klassik service the culturally-minded social groups
and go a long way toward fulfilling the broadcaster‘s cultural mission. B5 aktuell
helps to realise this mission with its large volume of information. Bayern plus
and on3-Radio enable Bavarian Broadcasting to test the potential of new trans-
mission technologies and, in the case of on3-Radio, to develop new programming
concepts.
In addition to its nine regional broadcasters Germany also has two other pub
lic-service broadcasting corporations: Deutschlandradio, which now broadcasts
three programmes with a focus on information and culture, and Deutsche Welle,
which broadcasts radio services worldwide from Germany. The latter has the twin
224
Music on Radio and Television |
Musicians of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
rehearsing a Musica Viva concert
missions of conveying an image of Germany and German culture around the
world and supplying information to Germans living abroad.
Private Broadcasters
In 2009, according to the Association of State Media Authorities for Broadcast
ing in Germany (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Landesmedienanstalten in der Bundesre-
publik Deutschland, or ALM), Germany had 360 general-interest and niche TV pro-
grammes operated by private broadcasters on a (mainly) local or nationwide level.5
In the audio sector, 244 private broadcasters competed with 70 public-service pro-
grammes in 2009. The vast majority of private programmes are broadcast locally,
regionally or state-wide; national channels are the exception. The private companies
usually offer format programmes, i.e. they define their image by means of music of
a dominant ‘flavour’, thereby determining the choice and loyalty of their listeners.
Most of the formats are oriented on popular music and mainstream broadcasts. Dif-
ferences reside only in the up-to-dateness of their musical offerings and whether the
music is primarily sung in German or English.
225
MUSICAL OFFERINGS IN BROADCASTING
Radio
Music is of crucial importance in radio. The proportion of music transmitted on
public-service audio broadcasters has remained relatively constant over the years
and currently lies at 62.5 percent (see Figure 10.2). Nonetheless, the broadcasters
differ in whether their programmes are talk-oriented or heavily music-oriented.
Figure 10.2
>> Music and talk programmes on ARD radio broadcasters
State-level broadcasting corporations
DLR DW1
BR HR MDR NDR RB RBB SR SWR WDR Total
Total air time in thousands of minutes
2008 3,278 3,275 3,909 4,414 2,108 3,935 2,108 4,967 3,316 31,311 1,118 2,406
2003 2,761 3,390 3,889 4,379 2,102 4,343 2,607 4,993 3,291 31,755 1,144 2,335
Total minutes by programme genre and format2 (in %), 2008
Music 59.3 56.9 61.5 63.9 75.9 57.7 76.7 65.1 54.6 62.5 30.2 6.93
Rock and pop 36.3 36.7 23.3 16.1 27.1 18.4 44.5 34.0 21.0 27.6 2.9 -
Easy listening 2.7 11.2 33.7 7.5 9.3 8.0 22.3 24.8 20.4 15.9 6.0 -
Classical 16.6 10.2 8.6 6.4 22.5 20.4 17.6 6.3 17.4 12.9 12.0 -
Talk 40.0 42.0 37.9 35.9 23.1 41.2 22.0 34.2 44.5 36.7 69.8 93.13
Information, services 32.3 28.9 27.0 35.0 28.8 47.1 11.1 20.5 25.3 29.3 46.1 -
Culture, education 9.0 5.4 3.5 12.2 11.3 3.1 3.1 6.9 14.1 7.6 32.6 -
Entertainment 2.4 6.5 3.3 22.6 - 1.9 0.1 6.8 0.9 5.9 0.4 -
Advertising 0.7 1.1 0.6 0.2 1.0 1.1 1.3 0.7 0.9 0.8 - -
Total minutes by programme genre (in %), 2003
Music 56.9 62.7 66.6 65.6 66.8 59.4 77.4 57.7 58.6 62.9 34.7 9.3
Talk 42.3 36.6 33.1 34.2 32.4 39.6 21.6 41.6 40.6 36.4 65.3 90.7
Advertising 0.8 0.7 0.3 0.2 0.8 1.0 1.0 0.7 0.8 0.7 - -
1 Deutsche Welle (DW): German-language programme and foreign-language programmes combined.
2 The sum total of the percentages for programme formats conflicts with total percentages for programme
genres, the reason being that music broadcasts contain sections of talk and vice versa. Different totals result
when the genres and formats are counted separately.
3 Including foreign-language programmes, where however the programme formats are not itemised.
Source: Compiled and processed by the German Music Information Centre from ARD-Jahrbuch, vols. 2004 and
2009, ed. Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
(Hamburg).
226
Music on Radio and Television |
A typical example is NDR 2, where music takes up slightly more than 70 percent of
the air time. In contrast, North German Broadcasting (Norddeutscher Rundfunk,
or NDR) also operates NDR Info, which devotes only 26.6 percent of its air time
to music. Even higher is the talk component of information broadcasters such as
B5 aktuell or hr-info, where the percentage of music approaches zero.
At present, pop and rock music are the most important components of total air
time among public broadcasters, with an average of 27.6 percent. The umbrella cat
egory of Unterhaltungsmusik (light music or easy listening), in which such styles as
operetta, German Schlager and singer-songwriters all the way to modern folk are
subsumed, accounts for 15.9 percent. Classical music (in a broad sense of the term)
has the smallest share with 12.9 percent of air time, which nevertheless adds up to
roughly a fifth of all music broadcasts. However, there are great differences among
the broadcasters: a programme such as BR-Klassik devotes more than 80 percent of
its air time to classical music, and the other so-called ‘cultural radios’ (see below) of
the broadcasting corporations likewise have a heavy emphasis on this area.
The percentage of music broadcast by private stations can only be illustrated by
means of examples. In Lower Saxony, for instance, current figures have been pro
vided by studies conducted for the State Media Authority of Lower Saxony by the
Volpers Research Group. Here the music share ranged between 63.8 and 76.9 percent
in 2009.6 These percentages differ only marginally between public-service and pri-
vate programmes, with a clear downward trend in the proportion allotted to music.
With few exceptions, private radio broadcasters concentrate on English-
language popular music in various styles. In 2009 private broadcasts were divided
among the following formats: Adult Contemporary (139 programmes), Contem-
porary Hit Radio (51), Rock (7), Oldies and Folk Music (6), Middle of the Road (4) and
Jazz (4). There is also a nationwide private broadcaster for classical music: Klas-
sikradio. A closer look at the musical offerings can be obtained from the studies
conducted by the Volpers Research Group since 1995. All in all, these studies stress
the significance of pop and rock music, which generally account for more than
90 percent of all titles played. Still, the broadcasters investigated in the study, in-
cluding one public-service institution (NDR 2), sharpen their programming profile
by using pop and rock in different ways: three of the four broadcasters examined
227devote more than 60 percent of their programmes to pop music, whereas Radio 21,
a private niche broadcaster for rock music, devotes more than 60 percent to various
substyles of rock. Some private popular radios, such as Radio ffn and Hitradio An-
tenne Niedersachsen, make do with a relatively small number of titles, though with
an overall upward trend, meaning that the offerings have become more diverse.
Radio 21 has a relatively broad spectrum with some 950 music titles in 2009. The
same applies to NDR 2, a public-service broadcaster with roughly the same number
of titles. The ten most frequently played titles on Radio ffn and Hitradio Anten-
ne Niedersachsen amounted to approximately 18 percent of the music broadcast,
whereasthe figures were significantly lower for the rock broadcaster Radio 21 and
the public-service broadcaster NDR 2, amounting respectively to 3.2 and 8.7 percent.
Cultural Radios and the Special Responsibility
of Public Broadcasting toward Music
From the very beginning radio broadcasting was seen not only as a means for
communicating culture, but as a cultural vehicle in its own right. Public-service
broadcasting in particular bears a special responsibility toward Germany’s cultur
al life. In meeting this aspect of the programming mission, a crucial role is played
by so-called ‘cultural radios’. Several different types of public-service cultural ra-
dios could be identified. One is made up of classical stations that focus almost
entirely on classical music. Another is mixed music-and-talk programmes with
an emphasis on music, where the music share ranges from 54 to 65 percent with
228Music on Radio and Television |
various points of focus within the classical repertoire. A final group includes talk
and information programmes with a large proportion of cultural reports and with
classical music among their musical offerings.
In earlier times cultural radios largely had mixed programmes which were
addressed to variable target groups and presented a very wide range of talk and
music programmes from every era and style. Since the late 1980s, however, they
have been subject to continuous reforms on which varying concepts have been
brought to bear. The concepts range from the development of stations dominated
by classical music to the creation of hybrid programmes that feature high-qual
ity titles from other styles of music, such as pop, chanson, world music or jazz, or
The WDR Radio Orchestra and the SWR Big Band, typifying the diversity of Germany’s radio ensembles
which include a larger percentage of talk and information services. One major rea
son for this development was to take into account the fact that cultural radios, too,
are increasingly being used as a background medium. The complaint is occasion
ally heard that several broadcasters concentrate on the more popular areas or ‘hits’
of classical music.
The stations support such important music festivals as the Donaueschingen
Festival, the Witten Days of New Chamber Music and Saarland Broadcasting’s
Mouvement Festival of 21st-Century Music. They also appear regularly as or-
ganisers of concerts or music competitions. A prime example of the latter is the
ARD International Music Competition, which has been held by Bavarian Broad
229State-level ARD Broadcasting Corporations, 2010
Orchestras, Choruses, Big Bands
NDR Bigband
NDR Chor
NDR Sinfonieorchester
Hamburg
North German Broad-
casting Corporation RIAS-Jugendorchester
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin* RIAS Kammerchor*
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin* Rundfunkchor Berlin*
BERLIN
NDR Radiophilharmonie
Hannover
Berlin-Brandenburg
Broadcasting Corporation
West German Broadcasting
Corporation Leipzig
MDR-Kinderchor
MDR Rundfunkchor
MDR-Sinfonieorchester
WDR Sinfonieorchester WDR Bigband
WDR Rundfunkorchester WDR Rundfunkchor
Köln
Central German Broadcasting
Corporation
Hessian Broadcasting
Corporation
Frankfurt a.XM.
hr-Bigband
hr-Sinfonieorchester
Saarland Broadcasting
Corporation Kaiserslautern
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie
Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern
Saarbrücken
Southwest German Broadcasting Corporation
Baden-Baden SWR Big-Band Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation
SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart
SWR Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart
Stuttgart
SWR Sinfonieorchester
Baden-Baden Freiburg
Chor des BR
Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Freiburg i.Br. Symphonieorchester des BR
München
national border
0 25 50 75 100 km state border
230Music on Radio and Television |
Source: German Music Information Centre
casting (BR) since 1952 and numbers such
outstanding artists as Jessye Norman
and Thomas Quasthoff among its prize-
winners. Contemporary music benefits
in a special way from the works commis
sioned by these broadcasting corporations.
In the last ten years Bavarian Broadcasting,
for example, has commissioned 180 new
works for its Musica Viva and Paradisi Glo-
ria series alone. Southwest Broadcasting
(Südwestrundfunk, or SWR) commissions
between 29 and 36 new works every
year and awards grants-in-aid to young
composers through its Experimental Stu-
dio for Acoustical Art (see also Stefan
ENSEMBLE
Fricke’s article ‘Contemporary Music’).
Orchestra
Chorus
Big Band In addition, practically every public
Youth ensemble broadcasting corporation maintains its
own music ensembles. The number varies
Networking institutions
from broadcaster to broadcaster, but usu-
* The Berlin ensembles belong to the Rund- ally there is a symphony orchestra, a radio
funk Orchester und Chöre GmbH (roc berlin),
whose shareholders are Deutschlandradio orchestra (for light music) and a radio
(40%), the Federal Republic of Germany
(35%), the State of Berlin (20%) and Rund-
funk Berlin-Brandenburg (5%).
chorus (see Figure 10.3 and in addition the
article ‘Symphony and Chamber Orches
tras’ by Gerald Mertens). West German
Border of state-level ARD
broadcasting corporations Broadcasting (Westdeutscher Rundfunk,
or WDR), North German Broadcasting
(NDR), Southwest Broadcasting (SWR) and
Hessian Broadcasting (Hessischer Rund-
funk, or HR) each maintain a big band, and
Cartography: S. Dutzmann
Leipzig, 2010
Figure 10.3
231Figure 10.4
>> Amount of music broadcast (television) by ARD, ZDF, RTL, SAT.1 and ProSieben (in % of air time)
2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
ARD / Das Erste 3.7 3.7 1.6 1.3 1.3
ZDF 1.9 1.6 1.6 1.2 1.2
RTL 0.9 0.9 1.7 1.1 2.3
SAT.1 - 0.1 0.6 0.7 1.1
ProSieben - 0.0 1.7 0.4 1.1
Note: Basis in 2000: Four-week programme analysis. Basis from 2001ff.: Complete survey based on broadcasters’
programme announcements.
Source: Udo Michael Krüger and Thomas Zapf-Schramm: ‘Politikthematisierung und Alltagskultivierung im Info-
angebot: Programmanalyse 2008 von ARD/Das Erste, ZDF, RTL, SAT.1 und ProSieben’, Media Perspektiven 4 (2009),
4 (2007), 5 (2005), 3 (2003) and 7 (2001).
Central German Broadcasting (Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, or MDR) has its own
children’s choir. Another peculiarity is found in Berlin, where there is a complex of
four ensembles: the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin (Deutsches Symphonie-
Orchester Berlin), the Berlin RSO (Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin), the Berlin
Radio Chorus (Rundfunkchor Berlin) and the RIAS Chamber Choir (RIAS Kammer-
chor). They are maintained by Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH Berlin (roc
berlin), a joint operation of Deutschlandradio, the federal government, the State of
Berlin and Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting. The Berlin RSO offers special proof
of the close connections pertaining between broadcasting and musical culture. It
is the oldest of Germany’s radio symphony orchestras, with a history dating back
to the birth of German radio in 1923. The significance of the radio ensembles is
viewed, on the one hand, in their ability to supply rural areas with high-quality
but affordable concerts, and, on the other hand, in its special working conditions,
which make possible a relatively large number of major world premières.7
These different cultural activities are tightly interwoven. New works are fre-
quently commissioned for the broadcaster’s own orchestras or festivals. The orches
tras’ recordings and the broadcasts of their concerts ensure that cultural radios
have exclusive and high-quality programming. Conversely, young artists and little-
known works can surmount the media barrier and receive a hearing outside of con-
cert halls and festival venues.
232Music on Radio and Television |
Television
By the nature of things, the role of music on television and on radio differs
widely. On television, music programmes tend to be marginal phenomena. The
percentage of music on public television is very low and, moreover, currently in
decline, especially on ARD (see Figure 10.4). If in 2000 the figure still amounted
to 3.7 percent, by 2008 it had dropped to a mere 1.3 percent. On ZDF the decline
is smaller, but only because the starting level was much lower. Public broadcasters
evidently compensate for the downturn in these figures on ARD and ZDF with other
programmes in which they have an active interest. The digital channels of ARD and
ZDF, the joint German, Austrian and Swiss project 3sat and the Franco-German
cultural channel Arte allocate higher percentages of their air time to music.
The music share has sharply increased at RTL from 0.9 percent in 2000 to
2.3 percent in 2008, probably reflecting the success of casting shows. The music
channels (e.g. MTV and VIVA) have clearly changed character in recent years as
music clips take up a decreasing percentage of their programmes. Today music
videos are primarily viewed via the Internet on platforms such as YouTube. The
pay-tv portal Sky has a music channel, Classica, that offers classical music almost
exclusively from 8:15 in the evening to 6:00 in the morning. Despite the modest
role of music on television with regard to quantity, the importance of the medium
for Germany’s musical culture should not be underestimated. Television remains
second to none for its ability to generate star power, at least in the short run.
USE OF MUSIC IN BROADCASTING
Most radio programmes today are so-called background programmes de
signedfor constant listening with a mixture of current news, service information
(weatherreports, time checks, real-time travel service) and popular music. On the
whole, listening to radio has declined since the onset of the new millennium: if
Germans listened to an average of 209 minutes of radio per day in 2000, by 2009
the figure had dropped to 177 minutes. Today roughly 77.2 percent of the population
turn on the radio each day (one-day reach).8 The public broadcasters as a whole
are clearly the market leaders with a one-day reach of 50.6 percent, whereas pri-
vate broadcasters only attain 40.9 percent. Although Germans now listen to less
233radio, it remains the most important medium for music, considerably surpassing
the amount of time they spend listening to sound recordings, which only take up
something more than half an hour per day, albeit with a sharp upward trend. How
much radio a person listens to depends to a large extent on his or her age. Young
people and senior citizens listen to far less radio than the middle-age groups, for
whom radio is particularly attractive. Especially strongly represented among radio
listeners are people with a medium level of education.
The downturn in radio listening is usually blamed on the arrival of new com
peting media, especially PCs and sound recordings. Media behaviour has indeed
changed, especially among 14- to 29-year-olds. This age group uses the new media
to a high degree while listening to far less radio than their elders.9 However, a
closer analysis reveals that owners of MP3 players listen to radio just as frequently
and intensively as other people. The popularity of MP3 players may thus be seen
as expressing a special liking for music. It even seems plausible that young people
who own an MP3 player attach particular importance to radio. In this group, radio
is a major source of information on new releases; one of the main reasons given
by iPod owners for their use of radio is that they want to hear new music titles
and thus expand their repertoire.10 These apparent contradictions probably result
from the fact that we are dealing with two different groups of young people: one
for whom music is very important, and who therefore use an MP3 player and listen
to radio with open and inquisitive minds, and another for whom music is not so
important, and who are therefore less concerned about modern storage media and
listen little to radio.
Most radio listeners choose their programme by the ‘flavour’ of the music. As
music preferences vary widely between age groups and social strata, this leads to
a clear socio-demographic segmentation among radio offerings. A particular form
of audience behaviour can be found in relation to radio programmes with classi-
cal music. On an average day 4.7 million German citizens and EU citizens living in
Germany listen to a public-service cultural or information programme (‘Geho-
bene Programme’). The one-day reach amounts to a total of 6.8 percent, with the
largestgroup of listeners (occasional users) amounting to 24 percent.11
234Music on Radio and Television |
Sound recordings play an especially crucial role in classical music. All in all, Ger-
mans listen to more classical music on recordings than on radio. According to an
ARD-ZDF study on the importance of ‘serious music’ (ernste Musik), a total of 29 per-
cent of Germany’s adult population listen to classical music on radio, including eight
percent on four or more days per week, 11 percent on one to three days per week and
ten percent on less than that, whereas 42 percent listen to classical music on their
own sound recordings. The same figure, 42 percent, also designates the number of
those who at least occasionally attend concerts of classical music, including church
concerts. The study also discovered that 18 percent of the population use sound
recordings but not radio to listen to ‘serious music’. Roughly 19 percent go to concerts
or opera performances but likewise make no use of radio to listen to serious music.12
Only five percent of the population make exclusive use of radio to listen to classical
music. Those who attach great importance to classical music take advantage of vir-
tually every option to listen to it. They find radio especially important for receiving
tips and motivation to become acquainted with new recordings and new styles of
music. Sound recordings are valued for the fact that they can be used whenever and
wherever the user wishes. Unlike radio, they make it possible to listen to music in-
dependently of predefined playlists. They are of greater importance for enhanced
pleasure, concentrated listening and special sound quality. Today the reception of
classical music on radio takes place mainly in the form of background listening,
much in the same way as popular music. Nonetheless, radio continues to offer diver-
sions and surprises and allows listeners to make new discoveries.
The WDR Big Band: the last word
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235WEB RADIOS
Listening to radio via the Internet is becoming increasingly popular in Germa-
ny. Web radios have grown by leaps and bounds. Germany’s performance rights or-
ganisation, GEMA (Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische
Vervielfältigungsrechte), licensed 450 Web radios in 2006; by 2010 the number had
skyrocketed to 1,772. The web radio monitor of the Bavarian Regulatory Authority
for Commercial Broadcasting (BLM) counted 1,914 Web radios across the nation. Of
these, 77 percent are pure Web radios, 16 percent broadcast the same programme
simultaneously with VHF stations, and another seven percent are adjunct Web
programmes of existing VHF stations.13 Offerings from public broadcasters can all
be received in the Internet. In particular, the character of conventionally receivable
stations for young people is largely determined by Web radios. For example, Bavar
ian Broadcasting’s young radio station, on3-Radio, banks heavily on audience par-
ticipation. But stations such as Jump MDR, MDR Sputnik and DasDing (Southwest
Broadcasting) are already at home in the online universe and target the generation
of ‘digital natives’, meaning those who have grown up with the Internet.
According to information from the industry association BITKOM, 16 million
Germans listen at least occasionally to Web radio, with an upward trend. If 18 per-
cent of ‘onliners’ also made use of Web radio in 2003, the figure jumped to 25 per-
cent in 2009. Users of online radio tend to be rather young: 36.4 percent of people
between the ages of 14 and 19 used live radio programmes in the Internet in 2009,
as compared to only 15 percent of the 40- to 49-year-old demographic. Still, cur-
rent utilisation figures make a very small impression compared to terrestrial or
cable radio. In contrast, anyone who owns a WLAN radio will listen much more fre-
quently to Web radio and less so to conventional radio. Web radio users are keenly
interested in classical music; 11 percent indicate that they use these music formats,
and among older Web radio users the figure is even 32 percent. Up to now, pro-
grammes of public or private broadcasters that can also be received in convention
al fashion have tended to predominate.14 Technical prerequisites have evidently
tended to impede access: an ARD study on radio streams reveals that nearly a fifth
of all persons polled needed more than an hour to install a Web radio device. On
average, the installation required 40 minutes, and 47 percent of the persons polled
complained about installation problems.15
236Music on Radio and Television |
The future of Web radio lies in the so-called mobile online services. Even to-
day roughly 19 percent of onliners use mobile Internet services, especially young
highly educated males. This group is disproportionately interested in radio pro-
grammes; their radio consumption lies above that of stationary onliners. They
tend to prefer music styles seldom found on VHF radio, such as modern jazz, world
music, folk music, and vocal or instrumental classical music.16 Spurred by new
technologies, the much-maligned music programmes available from Germany’s
radio broadcasters are gaining in diversity, thereby granting a wider range of op-
tions to listeners and greater popularity to musicians.
CONCLUSION
More than 80 years after its birth, broadcasting remains as loyal as ever to music.
Though the musical offerings on television may be declining, music continues to be
the most important programming element on radio. Popular music genres domi-
nate the offerings from private broadcasters and the mass-audience programmes of
public broadcasters. Germany’s public-service broadcasting corporations continue
to feel responsible for the cultivation and development of musical culture: they run
programmes specifically for classical music, advance the cause of contemporary mu-
sic with commissions and festivals, organise music competitions and maintain their
own ensembles.
The challenge for the relation between broadcasting and music comes from the
Internet. Web radio will play an increasingly important role, and new music-related
services will emerge. The mobility of Internet applications will continue to grow.
All of this will lastingly change the overall music economy and have no small im-
pact on Germany’s musical and media culture, especially if the classical music au-
dience should join forces with so-called ‘digital natives’. Dangers lurk, but so do
opportunities. The diversity of listenable music can increase, though up to now the
economic problems resulting from digitisation have not really been solved. In any
case, public broadcasting is also grooming itself to play a role in the Internet. All its
programmes are available online, and innovative new concepts are being tried out.
2371 Decision of the Federal Constitutional Court, delivered on 11 September 2007, p. 49.
2 Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (RStV), in the wording found in the Interstate Treaty for the Emen-
dation of Interstate Broadcasting Treaties (Staatsvertrag zur Änderung rundfunkrecht-
licher Staatsverträge), ratified on 10 March 2010 and effective as of 1 April 2010.
3 Ibid., §11, sec. 1, RStV.
4 Ibid., §41, secs. 2 and 3, RStV.
5 ALM Jahrbuch 2009-2010: Landesmedienanstalten und privater Rundfunk in Deutschland
[State media authorities and private broadcasting in Germany], ed. Arbeitsgemeinschaft
der Landesmedienanstalten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Berlin, 2010), p. 53.
6 Helmut Volpers, Uli Bernhard and Detlef Schnier: Hörfunklandschaft Niedersachsen 2009:
Strukturbeschreibung und Programmanalyse [Radio landscape in Lower Saxony: structur
al description and programme analysis], Schriftenreihe der Niedersächsischen Landes-
medienanstalt 26 (Berlin, 2010).
7 See Dorothea Enderle: ‚Die mäzenatische Aufgabe des öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunks
in der Musikpolitik‘ [The patronage mission of public broadcasting in music policy], Mu-
sikforum 93 (2000), p. 25.
8 See Walter Klingler and Dieter K. Müller: ‚Radio gewinnt Hörer bei jungen Zielgruppen:
Jahresbilanz auf Basis der erweiterten Grundgesamtheit Deutsche und EU-Ausländer
ab zehn Jahren‘ [Radio gains listeners among young target groups: annual stocktaking
basedon the expanded totality of German and EU nationals from the age of ten], ma 2009
Radio II, Media Perspektiven 10 (2010), p. 519.
9 Ibid., p. 521.
10 See Dieter K. Müller: ‚Radio – der Tagesbegleiter mit Zukunft: Chancen und Risiken im
medialen Wettwerb‘ [Radio – the daily companion with a future: opportunities and dan-
gers in the media competition], Media Perspektiven 1 (2007), pp. 2-10.
11 See ARD-Jahrbuch 2009, ed. Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkan-
stalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Hamburg, 2009).
12 See Ekkehardt Oehmichen and Sylvia Feuerstein: ‚Klassische Musik im Radio. ARD-E-Mu-
sikstudie 2005: Zur Unverzichtbarkeit des Radios für die Musikkultur‘ [Classical music on
the radio: ARD Art Music Study 2005: Radio’s indispensability for musical culture], Media
Perspektiven 5 (2006), pp. 259-72.
13 See ALM Jahrbuch 2009-2010 [op. cit.], p. 202.
14 See Dirk Martens and Thomas Windgasse: ‚Nutzungsveränderung und Zukunftsperspek-
tiven von Webradio: Ergebnisse einer Nutzerbefragung‘ [Changing uses and future per-
spectives of Web radio: results of a user poll], Media Perspektiven 3 (2010), pp. 119-30.
238Music on Radio and Television |
15 Thomas Windgasse: ‚Potenziale eines neuen Verbreitungswegs für Hörfunkprogramme:
Qualitative Studie zur Nutzung internetbasierten Radios‘ [Potential of a new transmis
sion path for radio programmes], Media Perspektiven 3 (2009), pp. 130f.
16 See Gerhard Franz: ‚Mobile Onlinenutzer in der crossmedialen Markenkommunikation:
Ergebnisse einer Onlinebefragung‘ [Mobile online users in cross-media brand communi-
cation: results of an online poll], Media Perspektiven 5 (2010), pp. 235-46.
List of Illustrations:
p. 219 © WDR / Claus Langer
p. 220 © rbb / Thomas Ernst,
© rbb / Hanna Lippmann
p. 225 © Astrid Ackermann
p. 228-29 (left to right) © SWR / Ralf Brunner,
© WDR / Martin Eggert,
© SWR / Alexander Kluge
p. 235 © WDR / Ines Kaiser
© Deutsches Musikinformationszentrum 2011 239You can also read
